Rise of the Lycans: Shadows And Secrets

Chapter 29 – Dreams

Rex

Standing under the spray of a hot shower, I lathered again for the third time, hoping to rid myself of the stench of smoke.

Grandma had insisted on visiting Père Lachaise, the world's most visited cemetery. The city of immortals wasn’t exactly the silent graveyard I had expected it to be. Even as hordes of people and tour groups visited the graves of the famous departed, a creature from one of my visions, drifting on black smoke, showed itself in broad daylight.

Grandma had explained that demons could be malevolent or benevolent, and everyone agreed that the demon we saw radiated dark energy. Demons were not common visitors in our world, but Uncle Balthazar and Uncle Zeus had faced off with a few in Egypt long ago. A powerful sorceress had summoned the demons in Egypt to help stop the rise of the lycans. The demons and the sorceress were sent back to hell, and the lycans returned.

Grandma clutched her holy water close all day, ready to fight against the demon, though I wasn’t sure if that would keep her safe.

After the cemetery, we stopped by Selena’s apartment in the Latin Quarter of Paris to pick up a few things, only to have the apartment blow up in flames as we left. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and I could contain the flames with my element to her apartment until the fire brigade arrived. The apartment was on the top floor, and the humans assumed it was a gas leak, but I knew it wasn’t… I could sense the explosion and flames with my element.

I finished rinsing off and reached for the bottle of shampoo.

I thought about the black mist that had appeared with the demon today. It had haunted my dreams for years. It snaked out like eerie tentacles and drifted in the shadows of dark corners. Storm had been having visions, but hers were shrouded in white fog, while mine were cloaked in black mist. She had her visions while awake, and mine came to me in sleep.

I got dressed and tucked Maeve’s necklace into my pocket. It had been a year and a half, and not a day went by that she didn’t cross my mind. It had been a week since I checked in with her grandmother, Mary, and it was almost time for another monthly postcard. I was already in Europe and prepared to jump on the next lead.

Reaching for my phone, I dialed Maeve’s phone number, which Brianna had given me. The number was still not in service. I tried her grandmother next, and the phone rang seven times.

“Sorry, I’m not available to come to the phone right now,” Mary’s voicemail greeted me, and I disconnected without leaving a message.

We met with everyone in my parent's suite to explain what had occurred at the cemetery, but my father wasn’t convinced it was a demon. Grandma insisted on what we knew was true, but he still had reservations. He didn’t believe demons could walk on hallowed ground and thought it was a prank.

“I know what I saw in that cemetery,” Storm said wearily as I followed her back to her room.

“Dad wasn’t in Egypt when they saw the last demons,” I agreed.

“It was over two decades ago, but Grandma was there,” she said, plopping face down on her bed. “Grandma knows what she saw.”

“We’ll figure this out.” I knelt to remove her shoes. She had a vision while we were trying to convince Dad about the demon, and I was able to tap into her thoughts.

“I hate feeling like this,” she whispered, closing her eyes. The problem with her visions is that they left her drained of energy.

“Can I get you something to eat?”

“No, I’m fine,” she replied.

“Storm, this creature with the big horns, have you seen him often in your visions?”

She curled on her side and pulled the pillow under her head. I slipped off my shoes and stretched out beside her.

“I’ve seen it… or him before,” she murmured. “I don’t know if he’s the devil or something.”

“The devil?”

“Or a dark angel… I’ve seen black wings.”

“Have you seen it here, in Paris?” I asked, pressing the button to lower the blackout shades.

“No. Did you see the hellhound with him in my vision, too?”

I hadn’t seen a hellhound at all. “You mean like a three-headed dog?” I asked just as my phone rang.

It was Mary returning my call.

“Hello, Mary,” I greeted her.

“Hello, Alpha Rex. I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

“No, of course not. How’s it going?” It took all the control I had to shovel out the pleasantries before I asked what I really wanted to know. “Have you heard anything new from Maeve?”

“We’re okay, thanks for asking. Alpha Zeus has everything under control. We haven’t heard anything new from Maeve, and John is just heartbroken. His birthday is next week, and he’s hoping to hear something from her.”

“That would be nice,” I replied.

“How’s Dori enjoying Paris? She sent the loveliest photos of her with the Eiffel Tower.”

“Oh, you know, Grandma, never a dull moment,” I chuckled. “If you hear anything from Maeve…”

“I will call you immediately, Alpha.”

“Thank you.”

I sat in quiet darkness and listened to Storm’s relaxed breathing. I thought she had fallen asleep, but then she softly asked the one question I hoped she wouldn’t.

“Do you love her?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer that. I had overwhelming feelings for Maeve I couldn’t describe. Alone in the dark, with the one person I trusted the most in this world, I poured my heart out to my twin.

“I don’t know what the hell I am or how I feel. I’m all fucking twisted,” I told her. “I’m obsessed, and I can’t let her go.”

“Rex…” she rested her arm across my chest.

“I’m riddled with guilt that practically chokes me every time I think about how I treated her. She’s a beautiful, sweet little thing… and I hurt her.”

“I know you’ve been sneaking off to look for her.”

“It’s my fault she felt like she didn’t belong in the world she was raised in. If I had been honest with her… if I had returned her affection instead of pushing her away.”

“Have you seen her in any of your visions?”

“No… have you?” I held my breath.

“No,” she breathed, slipping into sleep.

Maeve had become a ghost. The monthly postcards to her grandparents were the only trace of her. There was a good chance she was using an alias or had changed her name. I secretly prayed it wasn’t because she had gotten married.

I was working security detail at the graduation and tonight at the hotel, so I closed my eyes for a few hours of sleep.

Black mist danced all around me, and I felt like I was floating.

A large citadel bathed in twilight came into view. It was massive, and before I could take a really good look, the mist swirled around me again. When it cleared, I found myself standing under a large stone archway at the end of a corridor, topped with two stone dragon-looking gargoyles.

Before me was a heavy ten-foot wooden door that had been pushed open, and I slowly entered the room. I felt heat from the large fireplace warming the floor through my socks and realized my shoes were gone.

My heart skipped when I scented that sweet, warm caramel. Her beautiful long hair was splayed out on the pillow behind her. Maeve was curled on her side, sleeping beneath a large fur blanket. The bed was bigger than a traditional king-sized bed, and she looked so small and peaceful, curled up with Nessie in her arms.

“Maeve,” I called, but her eyes remained closed.

With each step I took closer to the bed, the black mist circled like a barrier between us. I could look, but I couldn’t touch. Even in my damn dreams, I couldn’t touch her anymore. If I got closer, I’d probably wake up.

“Maeve!” I tried again. “Maeve, please wake up.”

I wanted to rip the dark fur blanket away from her and warm her with my lycan fur—to kiss and taste her all over. I needed to feel her in my arms. To claim what was mine.

“Maeve!”

Why wasn’t she waking up?

“Come on, kitten, open your eyes,” I begged. “Look at me… Please.”

I knew this was a dream, not a vision, but it felt real. A humming vibration of energy I had never felt before pulsed in my pocket. My hand instantly reached for the necklace… her necklace. I opened my palm and saw the golden oak tree on the round pendant glowing.

“Maeve,” I called to her again and heard whispered voices from the corridor beyond the door.

“Is someone there?” If I could talk to someone, maybe I could figure out where Maeve was. My eyes dropped to a small cradle in the corner of the room, and the air was stolen from my lungs. I stumbled closer, expecting to see a baby with her hair, only to find the cradle empty.

The mist swirled faster, and I felt myself floating away.

“No! Wait… WAIT! MAEVE!

“Rex… Rex,” I felt the shake on my shoulder. “You’re dreaming again,” I heard Storm say.

“I’m awake,” I groaned, looking down at my feet. “My socks…”

“What about your socks?” Storm asked as she pressed the button on the blackout curtains.

The air conditioning kept the hotel room nice and cold, but my feet were warm. “They’re warm.”

“Socks are meant to keep your feet warm,” she laughed.

They weren’t just warm. They were very warm—as if warmed by heated stones.

“Rex?” My brother’s voice came through the mind link.

“Lukas,” I replied.

“I need a favor,” he said. “Can you stop at the flower shop on the way to the graduation and get me a large bouquet of flowers?”

“Of course.”

Storm eyed me suspiciously. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I nodded, trying to remember the details of my dream. “Did you tap into my vision?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, all I saw was black mist. I think it was a dream and not a vision.”

“I saw Maeve sleeping on a giant bed under a massive fur blanket.”

“Did you see anything that could give away her location?”

“There was a fireplace burning, so she was somewhere cold. There was a fortress… like a citadel, but I didn’t get a good look.”

“Well, maybe your dream will pick up in the same place tonight.”

An hour later, I stood at a flower shop, trying to decide what kind of flowers my brother would get for his mate, who was graduating from fashion school tonight. I remembered the flowers Maeve got on her birthday, and I still wasn’t sure if Grandma or Flaym had given them to her. Frustration surged through me. It was her eighteenth birthday, and I had shown up empty-handed.

“Puis-je vous aider, monsieur?” The florist smiled at me, asking how she could help me.

“Je prendrai le gros bouquet de fleurs, s'il vous pla?t,” I ordered the large bouquet. My French was a little rusty, and most people spoke English, but I wasn’t sure the older woman spoke English, and I didn’t want to offend her.

She tied a beautiful ribbon around the flowers, and I paid her.

“Les fleurs sont le langage de l'amour,” she waved with a smile as I stepped out of the corner shop.

Flowers are the language of love... that sweet shop lady was right.

I should have given Maeve flowers. I knew she was a romantic, and I’d been a fool. She wasn’t like the other girls who wanted material things, fancy dates, and a title. Maeve was sentimental.

Thirty minutes later, I gave Lukas his flowers and stepped outside to conduct a perimeter check. Between our family members and the warriors traveling with us, nearly two dozen shifters descended upon the fashion institute tonight. No one would be foolish enough to try something. Yet, just as the last thought crossed my mind, I sensed something unusual.

I slipped on my sunglasses to hide my lycan eyes from the humans and let my beast push forward. I took the stairs two at a time, and rushed to the side of the building where the energy was coming from. Someone in a black dress quickly moved around to the back of the building, and I chased after her, trying to maintain a somewhat human speed in case security cameras caught me.

The energy coming from her wasn’t human. I reached for the Zippo in my back pocket and prepared to use my element if she attacked.

“Cadbury,” I heard a female voice call out in a low hiss. “Cadbury, we need to leave.”

“He has it,” a man replied. “We need to get it back.”

I searched the back of the building and sensed an aura similar to an Omega, but not quite. A large shadow in the back corner seemed to move, and I would have missed it if I hadn’t seen it through my lycan vision. A middle-aged woman wearing a black dress was cloaked in the shadow.

“Wait,” I called out. “I see you in the shadow.”

“Kit-kat, GO!” A man yelled from behind me. I turned to see him near the front of the building where I had just come from. When I turned to look for the female standing in the shadow again, she had disappeared.

I rushed back to the front of the building, looking for the man she had called Cadbury. He had salt and pepper hair and good taste in three-piece suits. When I reached the front of the building, I scanned the sidewalk east and west, but there was nothing unusual and no sign of either of them. People were still arriving for the graduation ceremony and making their way inside.

“You okay?” Caspian asked as I entered the main hall of the institute, looking for the odd couple.

“You didn’t see a man with salt and pepper hair, gray pinstripe three-piece suit, and camel-colored shoes come through here, did you?”

“That’s pretty specific,” he turned to look at the people lingering in the hall.

“Something seemed off about them…”

“Them?”

“They called each other Kit-kat and Cadbury.”

An amused smile stretched across Caspian’s face. “Sure, and I’m Snickers.”

“They didn’t have human energy,” I told him.

“Interesting,” he nodded. “I sensed Omega energy, but I couldn’t find a shifter inside. Do you think it could have been another demon?”

“No. The demon we saw in the cemetery had a very strong and dark energy.”

“Should we say something to Lukas?” Caspian asked hesitantly.

“No,” I didn’t want to alarm him and have him drag Selena away from her night. “The ceremony will start in ten minutes, and when it’s done, we’ll return to the hotel.”